Monthly Archives: September 2012

Last week, I found a few really cute crocheted items floating around on Pinterest and I knew that I could merge them together to create my own pattern. After playing around with hook and yarn, I came up with this…..

My Puff Stitch Headband

I am really pleased with how this turned out! I haven’t taken any pictures of it yet, but I have another on the hook right now in yellow and I can’t wait to finish it so I can wear it, too. I have worn the gray one twice already and have received a lot of compliments on it. If you’d like to make a puff stitch headband for yourself, I have written out the pattern below and you can also add it to your Ravelry queue here. I hope it is clear enough to follow, as this is the first pattern I have written. If something does not make sense, or you need clarification on anything, please let me know!

Puff Stitch Headband:

Hook: H (5.0 mm)
Yarn: I used Caron Simply Soft
Puff Stitch: Yarn over, insert hook in stitch indicated and draw up a loop (there will now be 3 loops on the hook). Next, [yarn over and insert hook in same stitch and draw up a loop] 3 times (there will be 9 loops on the hook). Now, yarn over and draw through first 8 loops, then yarn over again and draw through remaining 2 loops.

Ch 70 (Adjust this to fit around your head. It seemed small to me, so I did 75 which ended up being too big and I have a big head! I went back and did 70 which turned out perfect.)

Round 1: Sc in ridge of 3rd chain from hook and in each ridge across. I like to crochet into the ridge, because it leaves the “V” of the chain showing on the bottom of the piece and makes for a cleaner look, in my opinion.

Here you can see where I’ve made my single crochets into the ridge of the chain on the right. You can also see the ridge and then the V’s on the left where you usually make your single crochets. I like to leave those intact, but that’s just me. I hope this visual helps explain a bit more what I mean about crocheting into the ridge of the chain.

Here you can see where I actually inserted the hook to make my next sc stitch.

After you sc in each ridge to the end of the chain, you will slip stitch both ends together to make a circle. The tops of the chain will be connected, but the bottoms of the chain will not. I know this seems funky, but you will stitch them together at the end.

Round 2: Ch 3, sk 1st sc, Puff in next sc, *ch 1, sk next sc, Puff in next sc*, repeat *to* to end of row. Ch 1, sl st to top of first Puff.

Round 3: Ch 1, *Puff in ch-1 space from previous row, ch 1*

Repeat Round 3 until the headband is the desired width. I did 5 rounds of puff stitches to make my headband.

Final Round: Sc in top of each Puff stitch and chain stitch around to end. Join to first sc in round with sl st or seamless join method (my favorite method for joining!).

Weave in ends and go back and stitch together the bottoms of the chain from the beginning.

Knotted Band:

Ch 6, hdc in 2nd ch from hook to end, ch 1 and turn.

Hdc in front loops only across (5 hdc), ch 1 and turn. Repeat this row until band is desired length. the shorter you make it, the more ruched appearance your headband will have. I made mine about 5.5″ long.

Wrap band around seam of your Puff Stitch Headband and sew the edges together on the inside of the headband. Weave in your ends and you are done!

These would be great to whip us as quick gifts! Of course you can play around with this and try different stitches, maybe do the knotted band in a different color or add a flower instead. I hope you enjoyed my first pattern!!

Monday morning is here and I’m hoping everyone had a wonderful weekend! As I’m sitting here drinking my coffee and thinking about my day yesterday, I’m realizing that it was one of those really lovely days where we didn’t really do anything particularly special, but the whole day added up to one that was in fact special. As my boys are rapidly getting older, these days are so important to me as I know sooner rather than later, they will likely want to be with their friends more than they will want to hang out with Mom and Dad. I’m OK with that, I mean it doesn’t exactly make me sad as I truly love to watch them grow and become their own people. I guess I just feel that it’s the natural order of things. Nonetheless knowing these days are somewhat numbered, I cherish them so so much.

Yesterday was my one day of the week to sleep in. I had grand hopes of sleeping until at least 9:00AM. I was dreaming, and not the way I wanted to be dreaming, because I was wide awake at 6:45AM and my body refused to go back to sleep. Sure, I complained about it, but really, my kids were up and playing so nicely together. What better noises could I be listening to on an early Sunday morning? My husband was in the same boat as me, so he started playing his video game while Pepperoni was hanging out with me.

Name that video game!

As my man was killing bad guys, he was also (relentlessly) requesting steak and eggs for breakfast. The night before I tried out a new recipe for delicious Surf & Turf Cajun Pasta and we had just enough leftover steak for everyone to have a nice breakfast.

Seriously…YUM!! Not getting to sleep in has it’s advantages, like cooking a bomb breakfast and having the dishes done all before 9:00AM.

After I refilled my coffee mug, I crawled back under the covers and settled down to some crochet. The whole time I was listening alternately to my favorite Country songs (I’m on a bit of a Country music kick at the moment) which my husband hates yet tolerated for me and to my boys giggling and laughing and playing with their Daddy. Yesterday I shared a photo of the square I worked on and I think it’s turned out very pretty. Not sure yet what I am going to make with it, as it is much larger than I expected. Maybe I will make it with a smaller hook and see if that suits my needs.

This motif is from the Weekend in Stockholm Throw from Stitch Nation. Love love love!

After some lunch, we all went to our association pool and spent a few hours in the water. I got to lay out and read my book in the sun while watching my boys rough house with my man in the pool. I’m reading the first book from A Games of Thrones. I feel like I have been reading it forever, but I really am enjoying it. I am more inclined to crochet lately than to read and I think part of that is because I have already watched the show and know what’s going to happen in the book. But I love how closely the show has followed the book, as that never seems to happen! After a bit, I jumped in the water, too, and we all had a blast. The boys sacrificed me a few times to The Shark Monster AKA Dad to save themselves, but I won’t take it too personally! I was also told that I was their vehicle and to go faster as we were “swimming” away from said monster. Swimming away consisted of me carrying a 4 year old on my side and an 8 year old on my back and trying to stay afloat. Finally it was time to go home and get dinner started. We were in the water so long, C had little old man hands.

He kept saying “Look, I’m an old man!!” in the silliest little old man voice!

When we got home, my man fired up the coals for the BBQ and I cut up some fixings for burgers and Italian sausages for dinner. Food always tastes so good after you’ve been swimming in the sun all afternoon! Next we let the boys pick out some candy and settled down on the couch with the dog and cat to watch a movie. C quickly fell asleep, so we put him in bed and turned on Super 8 for the rest of us to watch. T has been wanting to watch scary movies lately and this was a really good one for him. It was definitely not a little kid movie but it wasn’t too scary for him either.

All in all, it was just a perfect day. We just did what we wanted, when we wanted. There no fighting between the kids and we just got to really enjoy them. Now that it’s Monday and we’re all back to the grind, I’m so glad we had a day to just chill and be a family without having to follow all the strict schedules of work, school and sports that we have to stick to for the rest of the week.

I ended up missing FO (Finished Object) Friday this week, but I still wanted to share the two slouchy hats that I made this week. I am super happy with how they turned out! I shared a few sneak peeks of them on my last WIP Wednesday post.

The first one I finished was for my husband and I really want to steal it!

Doesn’t his new hat look good on him? I just love this man! He keeps threatening to shave the beard, but I don’t want it to go.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry here. It’s called the LAMB inspired hat. I did 18 rows of double crochet and 5 rows of single crochet.

The other slouchy hat I made this week was for myself. I don’t often make things for myself and I’ve been wanting to make this pattern for a long time now.

This picture is pretty true to color for this yarn. It’s a dark purple from Red Heart Soft Yarn. I don’t have the label anymore though, and I can’t remember the name of the colorway.

I’m really loving this pattern. It’s very easy and has lots of trebles so it works up pretty quickly. I made this hat in the medium size. You can find the pattern on Ravelry here. The pattern calls for a knit band, but I’m no good at knitting! Instead, I made a ribbed single crochet band and slip stitched the edge of the band to the last round of the body of the hat. I’ve written below how I made the band. If you want the band wider or narrower just adjust the number of beginning chains.

Ribbed Single Crochet Band:
Chain 9
sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across (8 sc) then chain 1 and turn.
sc in front loops only to end (8 sc)
Continue until band is desired length and slip stitch ends together.

I hope to make a few more of these, I think it would look great in a burnt orange colorway. I’m excited to start making some cute cooler weather items! Even though it’s been over 100 degrees here in So Cal the last few days! Maybe I can will the cooler weather to us…

I started a new square this morning and it’s looking really cute. Although, I don’t think it will be right for the project I had in mind for it, but I’m sure I can come up with something else for it.

This is from the Weekend in Stockholm Throw. I’ve been loving on this motif for a while now and it’s just as cute as I hoped it would be.

I hope you all are having a beautiful Sunday and keeping cool if you’re lucky enough to have the kind of heat that we do here! My boys are all asking to go to the pool, so I think I am going to make us all some lunch and head on out for some afternoon swimming.

Good morning!! I have been wanting to share a lot more crochet goodness lately and today I have several fun items that I have been working on to show you.

But first, I have to tell you about this class I took at the gym yesterday. C has been at home for the summer and yesterday was his first day back to preschool. It should have been last Tuesday, but the poor guy ended up with a massive middle ear infection AND mild pneumonia! So of course he was home all last week getting lots of Mama snuggles during his recovery. He is feeling great now and we are almost done with his antibiotics. So, I have been looking forward to going back to the gym, as I can only stare at the wall of my hubby’s office while I run for so long. Plus I love trying out the classes there! So yesterday, I dropped off the little guy and headed to the gym for the Hot Hula Fitness class. I have seen this class a couple times while I am on the machines and I have to say I was a little doubtful of how much of a workout the class would really be. It’s kind of like Zumba, but only in that it’s dance. It’s a Polynesian dance cardio class. The instructor’s first words when myself and several others raised our hands to say that it was our first time were: “You’re going to move your hips in ways you’ve never moved them before!”. And boy was she right! It was super fun, though and I was dripping sweat less than halfway through the hour long class. It went by so fast, too! Also a plus, I learned a new word for my, uh, bum: okole (oh-koo-lay). And let me tell you, when I woke up this morning, my okole was feeling it! I am going back tomorrow and I hope to keep it up twice a week. Hopefully my okole will be in shape in no time! Just in time for cool weather and layers of clothes! Wait, I think I’ve got this backwards. Oh well!

So anyhow, on to the lovely, hooky business of crochet!! I’ve been plugging away on C’s wavy blanket and making slow progress. I was hoping to have it done for the cooler weather but I better get a move on if I am going to meet that goal! Here is a picture that I shared in a previous post and below that, a picture that I took this morning:

This is progress on the wavy blanket as of July.

Progress on the wavy blanket as of September, almost 2 months later. Not much has happened for nearly 8 weeks!!

It’s about doubled in rows over 2 months, but that’s not going to cut it if I hope to snuggle my little guy under this blanket when the cool weather finally hits. I’ve been busy with some other smaller projects, so I hope to get the last of those out of the way soon and buckle down on this one.

Another project that I’ve been meaning to get started on is a Rasta hat for my husband. I made him a beanie several months ago and the man practically lives with it on his head if he’s not at work. Literally, he walks in the door, takes of his shoes, changes his shirt and puts on his beanie. That makes me so happy, he has no idea! So why has it taken me two months of him asking for a Rasta hat to actually make him one? I don’t know!! I finally got started on it a few nights ago and only have the band to do this evening to finish it up.

Cell phone shot of the beginnings of the Rasta Hat.

I should be able to share it with you for FO Friday. I have a feeling that I will be making one for myself very soon, as I really love how it is turning out!

And finally for myself, I began a new slouchy hat pattern last night. It’s one I’ve been wanting to make for a long time but have been avoiding as it has a knit band. I am awful at knitting. I don’t know why! Maybe I will conquer it one day, but that day is not anytime soon as I have soooo many crochet projects to make. I will probably just make a ribbed single crochet band for my slouchy hat instead of the knit band. I don’t have much progress to show you, as I was literally falling asleep in bed while I crocheted last night! I kept doing double crochets instead of treble crochets and then I finally realized that I did one too many doubles on a previous round and had to pull a bunch of it out. At that point since I was making so many silly mistakes on such a simple pattern, I decided it was time go to sleep!

Not much to show! I’ll work on it some more tonight when I’m actually awake and not falling asleep!

The pattern for this hat can be found here on Ravelry. It’s really a very pretty pattern and I hope to be able to show it to you on Friday!

On another note, I’ve decided that I need better yarn storage. I have no idea when I’m going to find the time to tackle that, but I really would like to get it all off my bedroom floor, or at least covered!

It’s not much of stash compared to most, but it really needs a better home!!

See my bag from Craftsy there? Eeek I’m so excited to use that yarn! It’s a very beautiful and soft organic cotton yarn. I bought the cream color and I’m still a little undecided on what to use it on, there are so many great patterns I want to make! But I do know that it will definitely be a wearable item for moi!

I hope you all are having a loving Wednesday! I am off to hit the treadmill and then go grocery shopping with my little man, Mr. C!

Oh my goodness, I have been gone for a bit!! So sorry about that! I had a few big lab practicums and a final at school, all back-to-back. Studying for those really dominated my life for a few weeks. Taking a 6 unit Anatomy and Physiology class in 8 weeks is no joke! School started up again for T (I now have a 2nd grader! Yikes!!!) as well as tackle football. The practice schedule has been pretty hardcore! Anyhow, now that my litany of excuses for disappearing for several weeks from blogland is out of the way, let’s get down to business, shall we?

Today, as I was rummaging through my fridge for something to cook for dinner, I saw that I had two cucumbers that were in need of being eaten before they went bad in a few more days. My fridge is looking pretty sad right now…I desperately need to hit the grocery store for a big stocking up. I’m still not quite sure what I am making for dinner, but I knew right away how to prepare these cucumbers into a lovely vinegar marinated side dish! And with summer winding down but the heat still blazing here in So Cal, I think this is the perfect addition to any end of summer BBQ. Thankfully my pantry is the opposite of my fridge right now and I had just what I needed to whip up this refreshing side dish! Here is what you’ll need:

I didn’t decide to take an ingredients photo until I had already sliced the cucumbers and onions. Whoops. I get a little ahead of myself sometimes!

This recipe is so simple! Just combine the sliced cukes and onions in a large(ish) glass or ceramic bowl. Don’t use a metal bowl, as you don’t want the acidic vinegar to react with metal (gotta remember your chemistry in the kitchen!!). Then, combine the remaining ingredients in a small glass bowl and stir with a fork or whisk until they are nicely combined. This is such a fresh tasting marinade, you’re going to love it! You can even try putting in a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream for a creamy texture. Next, pour the marinade over the top of the vegetables and give it a great big stir to combine. I used my fingers to separate the cucumber slices to make sure that everything was evenly and wonderfully coated.

So pretty! I love the colors here.

Go ahead and cover this up with some plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours before serving. I did sneak a bite or two before I covered it and I can tell you this is sooo yummy! I can’t wait until it’s cold and I can eat it next to some grilled chicken for dinner tonight. I bet this would be great as a side to some seared salmon. Enjoy!